


Please Don't Cry

by faithonacliffbythesea



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: David is so gay, M/M, Nightmares, Sarah is mentioned, im bad at titles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-11 07:49:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5619244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faithonacliffbythesea/pseuds/faithonacliffbythesea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack Kelly did not cry. He had seen too many things and couldn't possibly have any tears left to shed. Yet here he was, laying on David Jacob's bed, crying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Please Don't Cry

**Author's Note:**

> I had an idea, I gave up on said idea, then I birthed this mess of a fanfic.

Jack Kelly was crying. It was a subtle thing, and David didn’t think he would have noticed if he hadn’t been laying so close to him.

This was one of the few nights that Jack had ever stayed at the Jacobs’. David had been happy that he had finally taken them up on an offer that had been there since the very first day they had met. He wanted so bad to ask why, out of all days, Jack had chosen this one, but he learned a long time ago that accidently overstepping boundaries was not a good thing. So he waited for Jack to bring it up himself, but he didn’t. 

As the night drew to a close and it was time for David to go to sleep, Jack followed, as there was no room for him to sleep anywhere else in the small tenement. It was an awkward fit, but somehow comforting. David could feel his eyelids drooping and his brain slowing down, and he knew sleep was on it’s way. Yet he couldn’t help opening his eyes just one more time, if only to get just a glimpse at the sleeping boy next to him. But what he saw was not a sleeping figure, but one with small, glistening tears streaming down his face.

Despite being best friends for awhile now, David had never seen Jack cry. It was frightening. What could ever make a man like Jack Kelly cry? What could make a man who had seen death, a man who had lead a strike against the most powerful man in New York, cry? 

“Jack, what’s wrong?” David couldn’t help the ridiculous amount of worry that seeped into his voice. He waited for what seemed like forever, for a response he didn’t receive. Upon closer inspection, it was revealed that Jack really was asleep. 

David let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. If Jack was crying in his sleep, then he must be having a bad dream. He began to lightly shake him awake, hoping that Jack wouldn’t be mad at him for waking him up. 

Jacks eyes slowly opened and locked on to David’s. It wasn’t long before, he too, realized he was crying. He quickly wiped them away and turned to stare up at the ceiling.

“Are you okay?” David repeated.

“Yeah, Dave. It’s just a dream,” Although Jack sounded like he was counseling himself more than David.

David should have been offended that Jack didn’t trust him enough to tell him, but he knew that Jack didn’t trust anyone enough to tell them most things about himself. David was just glad to be counted among the lucky few that knew some. 

“It’s okay to cry you know. It doesn’t make you weak, and I know you’re not. And you don’t have to hide things from me. I’m not going to judge you,” David said, just in case Jack really did want to talk. He didn’t expect a response; he didn’t usually expect things from Jack.

To his surprise, Jack did start talking. “It was about my ma,” He whispered. “She use’ to sing to me in this real soft voice.” Jack’s voice cracked and David reacted on instinct and grabbed his hand. He decided to mentally scold himself for this later, but when he tried to pull his hand away, Jack’s fingers closed around his and wouldn’t let go.

“I was maybe 6 or 7, an’ I use’ to have a hard time gettin’ to sleep ‘cause our tenement was so loud,” Jack continued. His eyes never left the ceiling, but his thumb was tracing circles on the back of David’s hand.

“An’ she would pull me in close so her mouth was next to my ear and she’d sing about Santa Fe an’ what we was gonna do there ‘cause she knew we’d get there someday.” Jack was crying again but he didn’t move to wipe them away. Instead he rolled over to look at David as if to gauge his reaction.

“An’ one day while she was singin’ to me, my pa came in drunk an’ beat her to death. That was the night I ran away.” David sucked in a deep breath. That’s how his mom died, by his own father? Jack’s tears were coming down in waves and he turned and looked back up at the ceiling.

“That’s what I was dreamin’ about, Dave.” David squeezed Jack’s hand until Jack tilted his head to look him in the eye again.

“I’m so sorry,” and David really was. No one should have had to go through that at such a young age, or ever for that matter. Jack’s eyebrows scrunched together in a short flash of annoyance. David had momentarily forgotten how much Jack hated pity. 

“Oh you’re probably tired of hearing that, aren’t you?” David backtracked. Jack’s cheeks were still covered in tear stains and all David wanted to do was kiss them. He had to remind himself that while that may make him feel better, it would most definitely not make Jack feel better.

“Yeah, I’ve been havin’ that nightmare a lot lately, an’ sometimes I scream. The boys were sorry at first an’ all, but when it kep’ happenin’ they was getting’ annoyed an’ I didn’ want wake ‘em up every night. I figured I could just sleep outside, but then it snowed and I don’t have a coat, so I figured I’d come here ‘cause this is the only other place I know that I can sleep at. Plus I thought that maybe the nightmares wouldn’t happen ‘cause you-“ David couldn’t take it anymore. Jack just kept rambling on and on, and he still hadn’t let go of David’s hand, and David just couldn’t take it. He pressed his lips against Jack’s.

And then he immediately pulled out just as his lips brushed over Jack’s chapped ones.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry,” David squeezed his eyes shut and after a minute of quietly repeating these words, he opened one eye just a crack to see Jack’s reaction. His reaction was so surprising to David that he stopped apologizing and opened both eyes wide.

Jack was smiling. He was gazing at David with his right hand touching his lips that was curled into a smile.

“Could you do that again, Dave?” He asked. David let out a surprised breath and quickly complied. 

Their mouths collided and David never felt anything so satisfying. Jack’s lips were warm and rough due to the cold weather. His tongue swept over David’s bottom lip and he let out a small whimper that sent shivers down David’s spine. He tangled his hands into Jack’s hair and let out a soft moan.

It didn’t occur to David that Sarah was in that room until exact second. He almost punched Jack in the face in his haste to get away. Jack’s face twisted in confusion and David quietly mouthed Sarah while pointing to her bed in the corner of the room. Jack nodded in understanding but he didn’t stop smiling.

He looked wrecked and David was proud to say that he did that. You could vaguely see the tears stains that had been left behind but Jack was grinning so wide that David could hardly believe this was the same guy that had cried just a few minutes ago.

“I guess we should go to sleep now, huh?” Jack asked. 

“Yeah, we probably should,” David answered. But neither of them slept after that. They held hands and stared up at the ceiling in unfiltered excitement until the first ray of sun stretched across the sky.

After that night, it was more common for Jack to be seen sleeping at the Jacobs’ house than at the newsies lodging house. But that was okay, the family was always more than happy to take him in. He rarely had nightmares anymore, but when he did, David would always find a way to calm him with words, and maybe a few kisses too.


End file.
